Last Day to Live

Last Day to Live

Whenever someone uses a common phrase such as, “Opportunity only knocks once” or “Strike while the iron is hot”, he is using a derivative of carpe diem. “Carpe diem is a phrase from a Latin poem by Horace that has become an aphorism. It is popularly translated as "seize the day”(Wikipedia).The accomplishments which people have completed by just seizing the day are legend. The life lived by those who always take no risks maybe be safe; though, in old age the most prevalent regrets are what might have been and the things we could have done. In the three examples: “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” by Robert Herrick, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and the movie Dead Poets Society we will explore the concept of carpe diem. We must be ever vigilant and ready to seize the day for today may be all we have; so live life each day as if it is your last.

While the choices made during our time in the sunshine are difficult and laced with consequences, change will happen. Whether this change is for the better or for the worse, time will only tell, but there are places in each of our lives in which “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (Frost 1). In the poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”, Herrick, clergyman and poet, tells us to “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, / Old Time is still a-flying,” (Herrick 1-2). On the surface, Herrick advises the young virgins to forego the seriousness and responsibilities of life in order to seize the moments of pleasure that life has to offer. While we are young, we have an opportunity to perhaps enjoy the time without the pressures of responsibilities. These are far from being new concepts. Even Latin poet Ausonius in a translated poem stated, “O maid, while youth is with the rose and thee, / Pluck thou the rose: life is as swift for thee” (Ausonius 49). With bodies that do not ache, energy for play and work, and not stuck in the prisons of our own making, carpe diem leads a few young adventurous souls...